Intel, Google working on Android 4.1 port for Atom

Intel has confirmed it is working with Google to support newer versions of Android, including the latest Jelly Bean release, on smartphones and tablets powered by Atom processors. The company didn’t share a time frame for when the Android 4.1 port would be complete, or when the OS would be deployed in products, but IDG News says current devices will get updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich first.

So far Intel’s presence in the mobile market is negligible -- unlike their position with traditional x86 chips for desktop and laptop computers. But the company is pushing forward with its plans to break into this segment and earlier this year saw the launch of the first Intel-based smartphone for the consumer market, the Lava Xolo 9000, in India. Shortly afterwards an Orange-banded Intel-powered handset launched in the UK and another from Lenovo in China.

It's still too early to tell if their efforts will gain any traction in the short and mid-term, but for now at least they have a few other manufacturers lined up to release their own Atom-powered handsets, with devices from Motorola, and ZTE reportedly due in the coming weeks and months.

At the moment devices running on Intel’s Medfield-based Atom processor are based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which was released in December 2010 and is still the most widely used version.